


Land of the Living

by JoJo



Series: Honeymoon Trail [13]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: M/M, Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-23 23:51:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2560334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoJo/pseuds/JoJo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he wakes up Ezra has weighty matters on his mind, but the others don't seem to want to know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Land of the Living

**Author's Note:**

> long hiatus... bit of an update, although not a conclusion (yet) - written to the dreamwidth mag7daybook prompt _"Chris and/or any, OW, coming back to the land of the living"_

The parade of phantoms through his sleep had left Ezra disoriented

But he was awake now. ‘Back in the land of the living’, so they said. Or, alternatively, 'on the mend', although none of them seemed too convinced. Ezra wondered if his flirtation with the ever-after – because he knew he’d had one all right - was really over.

He’d been shot. Ezra could remember the punch, feel the vindictive burn of stitches, smell the ooze of his own wound. And he knew, from the powerfully empty ache of his bones, that it had almost killed him.

Distorted voices had slid at him out of the murk, telling him what to do – _breathe, hold on, quiet down, rest easy_. Even now he was conscious and the voices were recognizable once again, somehow none of them sounded or felt quite right.

Nathan was both more short-tempered and more tender than usual. “Need to get some of this inside you, so don’t you be a nuisance and go falling asleep just yet.”

Buck, edgy and blustering, seemed hardly able to stay still enough to sit by the bed. He kept looking out of the window as if there was something concerning out there. “Good to see you awake, hoss, real good. Now, can’t stay, gotta go... do something, but I’ll be back to visit later so you... you just do what Nathan says and drink that good broth.” And then he was gone, the sound of his booted feet taking the stairs two at a time.

Josiah, pale and drawn, still with his traveling coat on, was here. Why, Ezra couldn’t think. Or why any of them were here, come to that, when it had only been him and Chris before, baiting the trap. “We thought we were coming for your funeral.” Josiah hunched into the coat, seemingly chilled by his own thoughts.

And then Vin, hiding under his hat, told him from the doorway in a voice gravely with emotion that it was Ella Gaines who fired the bullet - as if he didn’t know. As if Vin thought fever had left holes in his memory. Told him straight he must have been out of his mind to play such a dangerous game with a bitch like her before it seemed like he thought he’d said too much and slid out.

They all told him things – the time of day, the time he’d been down, the time it had taken Josiah and J.D. to get here – but not what he wanted to know. The one thing he needed above all others. Wouldn’t even let Ezra ask that. Must reckon he was too weak to interrupt, too scoured out to even lift a hand. Even J.D. kept dropping his eyes and scratching nervous fingers under his chin.

Ezra tried to ask again. Felt cold drops of sweat prick at his hairline with the effort.

“Land sakes,” Nathan said finally, laying a hand on his shoulder. “Thought I told you not to talk? Going to tire yourself out, and you need your strength.” He sighed, unwilling, eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep. “What is it you need to say anyhow?”

_He was here_ , was what Ezra needed to say. _Chris was here. I’m not that far gone. I heard him, I felt him, I spoke to him._

More important than that – so important it was like a weight sitting on his chest, a choke-hold of fear around his throat.

_Why isn’t he here now?_

Nathan still wouldn’t let him speak. But he squared his broad shoulders and huffed, and then sat on the edge of the bed.

“All right,” he said. “All right. I know. We’ve been arguin’ about it, whether to tell you.”

_Dear God_ , Ezra thought. Tears pricked in the corner of his eyes, a weakness in front of Nathan Jackson he didn’t even care about anymore.

“Say it.” His voice finally came out, the feeblest, scratchiest excuse for words he’d ever heard.

“Oh now, I don’t know, Nathan.” J.D. spoke up nervously from one part of the room, seeming to forget that Ezra was enough in the land of the living to hear him.

“We can’t not.” That was Josiah, in another part of the room.

Good Lord. If he wasn’t half dead already, now they were trying to kill him.

“Please...” He found the strength to force his hand from the bed although it was too unmanageable to grab at Nathan’s sleeve.

“You know about Ella Gaines, that she shot you.” Nathan pressed his hand back on the bed, kept it there, patting it distractedly as he spoke. “Maybe you even know why she shot you, I can’t say. Anyhow, she ended up with a bullet in her too but they arrested her because she was running crazy, maybe they didn’t know who she’d get around to next. What a damned mess.”

“Mess,” Ezra found himself echoing, even though he’d meant to say something else.

“So the Judge is supposed to be comin’, try and help sort things out, because Ella... well, she went and got herself bailed somehow, walked free, and now Chris... well now Chris is the one in jail, bein’ charged with tryin’ to kill her. And that story seems to be stickin’.” Nathan took a breath, shook his head. “That damned woman must have some plan, because for sure she don’t want him stayin’ in jail, but we don’t know what, and to tell the truth, Ezra, it’s not lookin’ good either way.”

“Not,” Ezra rasped out and he made a good attempt to sit up in the bed. “Not Chris...”

“Now see this is exactly why we weren’t gonna tell you... you just stop that right now. Lay back. Josiah, can you-?”

“Brother,” Josiah said, and now he was sitting on the other side of the bed, hemming him in. Ezra kept his rheumy eyes fixed on the door. He wanted to get to it, get out of here, down to the jail. He needed to see Chris. Needed to make sure with his own eyes he was all right. Tell whoever was masquerading as the law around here what had really happened. “You can’t get up. You have to get some strength so we can get you the hell out of here.”

There was more sweat breaking out all over him. The effort to move had set his teeth jangling and his wound was beginning to make itself known. But now his mind, having woken properly, was beginning to race. Never mind getting him out of here. It was Chris who wasn’t safe. Ella Gaines was out to get him, get her claws in him, one way or another. She’d be aiming to make sure he gave in to her on the threat of something worse happening, or else if she thought she couldn’t have him, she’d see him hang. Ezra knew he’d fired and hit her. He’d been aiming to kill her outright before she killed Chris. Only he’d been constricted by the dress.

The dress... Damn the dress. He tried to move one leg, to get it on the floor.

“Ezra,” Nathan said, commanding now, towering over him. “You need to stay still, you hear? Think Chris wants you killin’ yourself trying to get to him? You want us to have to go over there and tell him there was nothin’ we could do this time, you just would stand up, set your wound to bleedin’ again and we couldn’t stop it? Huh? That what you want for him? He needs to know you’re doin’ OK, give him something to hang on to.”

The words were a gut punch, rendering him powerless. Ezra felt every atom of energy drain out of him. He felt himself sinking back into the pillows, things becoming fuzzy around the edges of his vision. When they cleared, there was something cool across his forehead and Nathan was banging about at the other side of the room.

Still sitting on the bed, Josiah picked up the cloth and turned it over. “We’re looking out for Chris every minute of the day,” he said. “Buck’s over there now. Vin’s out and about in town keeping tabs on the Gaines woman. Judge Travis was following on behind us, should be here sometime tomorrow.”

“And you,” Nathan added, coming back over to the bed armed with a cup and spoon. “We’re lookin’ out for you too, Ezra. Ain’t no tellin’ what that woman will do. Buck had a letter from her, almost as soon as Chris was behind bars. Telling us to back off, and threatenin’ your life.”

So that explained the appearance of everyone, how come they were all so damned jumpy. Why even now young J.D. was standing over at the window peering through the drapes, every inch on guard.

“Listen,” he said, shivering a little. “Chris...”

“Hell, Ezra...”

“Would y... would you just...”

Nathan stopped still, stood where he was poised with the cup. He exchanged a look with Josiah.

“We’re listenin’,” he said. “But only if you lie still and take some of this when you’re done.”

Ezra shut his eyes for a moment, for strength. “It was me,” he said, and opened them again.

“What was you, brother?”

“Shot her.”

In the ensuing silence he let his eyes drift closed once more, even though he thought that might be a mistake. Staying wide awake suddenly seemed beyond his capabilities.

“Chris shot her,” Nathan said, kindly, as if he was understandably confused.

“No.”

“Ah now, Ezra...” Not so kind. More frustrated.

“Find... bullet.”

He knew they were exchanging looks again. Guessing he was at his limit, he let Nathan raise his head, took a few obedient sips of tea off the spoon. Strange tasting, a mixture of metal and earth, but still welcome, slaking his parched throat.

“Good,” Nathan said, sounding satisfied, showing where his priorities lay. “That’s good.”

Somehow it was comforting to have the weight of Josiah still dipping one side of the bed. The pillow was damned uncomfortable though. Ezra heard the door of the room open and close, felt the presence of the parade of whispering voices again as sleep tugged on his senses.

“He said what?”

“Hell, you know what this means, don’t you? They’re both gonna claim that bullet - Chris won’t risk Ezra being arrested while he’s still so bad. He’s already worryin’ himself skinny. And Ezra ain’t gonna see Chris go down for this either.”

“What the heck do we do then, Buck?”

“What Ezra said. Find it. Did the doc take it out? Or did it go through? We need to know.”

“But if it’s from the derringer? We gonna say that? They’re eating out of her hand right now. If she tells them to arrest Ezra, likely they will.”

As he sank down, Ezra knew he had to leave them to it for the moment, put his trust in these men to handle this mess. Even as the waves of fatigue pulled him under he was damned determined he'd play his part though, whatever it cost him and whether they tried to stop him or not.

Because Chris.

His heart constricted, made him twitch.

Because without Chris, they could keep their on the mend. They could keep their damned land of the living and welcome to it.


End file.
